Aliens exist, thereâs no two ways about it. There are so many billions of stars out there in the universe that there must be all sorts of different forms of life. Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen? Maybe not. Itâs possible theyâre here right now and we simply canât see them
â Read on www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/05/astronaut-helen-sharman-this-much-i-know
Well this is an eye-opening piece that has caused me to reconsider lots of presuppositions…
In other words, to solve the problem of our unwillingness to keep track of our dogs, we do not address our own unwillingness. To address the overpopulation of unwanted dogs, we do not address the overpopulation. Instead, we non sequitur: we take brand-new dogs and introduce them into our homes by first putting them through a surgery at six, four, or even three months of age. The professed solution, in the United States, is to spay or neuter all the new ones.
Source: Opinion | Dogs Are Not Here for Our Convenience – The New York Times
In 1933 nuclear physicist Marie Curie had outgrown her lab in the Latin Quarter in central Paris. To give her the space needed for the messy task of extracting radioactive elements such as radium from truckloads of ore, the University of Paris built a research center in Arcueil, a village south of the city. Today itâs grown into a crowded Âworking-class suburb. And the dilapidated lab, set in an overgrown garden near a 17th century aqueduct, is sometimes called Chernobyl on the Seine.
Source: France Is Still Cleaning Up Marie Curieâs Nuclear Waste – Bloomberg
Climate change is the ghosts of impacts future….
And so the most effective guard against climate breakdown may not be technological solutions, but a more fundamental reimagining of what constitutes a good life on this particular planet. We may be critically constrained in our abilities to change and rework the technosphere, but we should be free to envisage alternative futures. So far our response to the challenge of climate change exposes a fundamental failure of our collective imagination.
In the end, that data was the âequivalent to 5000 years of mp3 filesâ according to Dan Marrone, an astronomer and co-investigator of Event Horizon Telescope. It was recorded onto half a ton of hard drives and then physically sent to centralized locations where it was analyzed by supercomputers for months in order to get the image we see today.
Source: See the first image ever taken of a supermassive black hole – The Verge
The reason why we experience reality as a movie when itâs only a collection of pictures can be at least partially explained by our rhythms of attention. About four times every second, the brain stops taking snapshots of individual points of focus â like your friend on the corner in Times Square â and collects background information about the environment. Without you knowing it, the brain absorbs the sound of the crowd, the feeling of the freezing December air â which it later uses to stitch together a narrative of the complete Times Square Experience.
â Read on www.inverse.com/article/48300-why-is-it-hard-to-focus-research-humans
I love this story (not just because I have an unhealthy obsession with bags and man purses)…
For whatever reason, Armstrong seemingly kept the bag a secret for more than four decades. Even when questioned about mementos by his authorized biographer, Armstrong made no mention of the historic artifacts that were tucked away in his closet.
To be clear, the bag was not something Armstrong snuck home from the moon. After returning to lunar orbit, the bag and its contents were moved from Eagle to the command module “Columbia” before the lander was directed to crash back to the surface. Had the purse remained aboard, it too would have been destroyed.
Source: Neil Armstrong’s purse: First moonwalker had hidden bag of Apollo 11 artifacts | collectSPACE
Hmm… being the parent of a current toddler, I’m going to take an initial pass on this upgrade offer.
Still, the results provide an interesting look into how the brain can store and ‘forget’ memories from childhood – and it’s tantalising to think that our very earliest moments in life might really be locked up in our neurons somewhere.
Source: Our Toddler Memories May Not Be Permanently Lost, Mouse Study Shows
It’s safe to say that Hawking inspired so many people of my generation (and generations after us, hopefully) with his wit and humor along with his insights into the workings of black holes and the cosmos.
As a teenager who dove into the world of astronomy and cosmology as an escape from my small rural hometown, I always found Hawking as an incredible enigma with his dense articles, pop-sci books, and then appearances on The Simpsons and Star Trek: The Next Generation (all of which I cherished and continue to do so.
As a Middle School Science Teacher, I frequently used video clips of Prof. Hawking to make a point about space or black holes or the need for humble humor in all of our exploits.
Rest easy and continue to spur us forward in our journey to the stars, Prof. Hawking.
“His final resting place lies between the remains of two other famed scientists, Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton.
It is a rare honor to be interred at the Abbey, and one that has not been given to a scientist for almost 80 years. Before Hawking, the last scientists laid to rest at Westminster were atomic physicists Ernest Rutherford in 1937 and Joseph John Thomson in 1940.”
Read More on CNET – Stephen Hawking’s voice beamed into space as his ashes are interred
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This is beautiful. Why didn’t I know this already?
Fingerprints are formed by friction from touching the walls of our motherâs womb. Sometimes they are called âchanced impressions.â By Week 19, about four months before we are issued into the world, they are set. Gorillas, chimpanzees, and koalas also possess exclusive prints.
â Read on www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/15/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints/
It’s more the fetus touching the amniotic sac combined with genetics, but it’s still a striking thought. Here’s a helpful video I found on the topic.
